Outgoing UBC president Stephen Toope, a Harvard grad who once worked for the United Nations, will lead U of T’s Munk School in 2015.

Outgoing University of British Columbia president Stephen Toope has been scooped up by the University of Toronto’s prestigious Munk School of Global Affairs, which he is set to lead in 2015.

A Harvard grad with experience working for the United Nations, Toope plunged back in the job market last spring when he announced plans to leave UBC after eight years as president. At the time, he expressed a desire to pursue his longtime academic loves: international affairs and law.

His new job at the Munk School seems to fit the bill.

The U of T announced Wednesday that Toope, 55, would take over the role left behind by Janice Stein, the outgoing director of the school.

“The Munk School has built a reputation around the world for its thoughtful and insightful examination of international issues,” said Toope. “I look forward to joining its outstanding researchers and students in working to understand and tackle global problems.”

The Munk School is an overarching academic hub at U of T that houses global affairs programs, including European Studies and an international journalism fellowship.

As UBC’s 12th president, Toope was best known for launching “start an evolution,” a fundraiser that aimed to gather $1.5 billion and double the number of alumni involved in campus life. The lofty campaign included a series of global goals, such as seeking solutions for child poverty, climate change and global disease through research.

Toope is a renowned academic, having completed degrees at Cambridge, U of T and McGill. In 1979 he graduated manga cum laude from Harvard, where he studied literature and history.

His expertise in international law has landed him jobs with the United Nations and the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, where he once served as president. The University of Toronto expressed excitement over Toope’s choice to move east.

“We are delighted to have a scholar and academic leader of professor Toope’s stature taking over as director at the Munk School,” said U of T president Meric Gertler. “I know he will continue the school’s proud tradition of world-leading work on global affairs.”

Toope will replace Janice Stein, who became the Munk School’s first-ever president when it opened in 2000.

“Janice Stein is rightfully recognized as one of the world’s leading thinkers on international issues,” said Gertler. “Her academic rigour is matched only by her tireless commitment to being part of a well-informed public discussion of global issues.”

Recently, Toope was criticized after he called Twitter “one of the worst things that’s been created in my lifetime” in an interview with campus newspaper The Ubyssey.

Iram Khan, a teacher in Surrey B.C., disagreed with Toope’s harsh wording, saying her school district “has welcomed Twitter.”

“We have our own hashtag stream where people from the district and outside of the district share, collaborate, and celebrate all in the name of improving education,” she wrote in a blog post.

Toope stood by his words in an emailed response to Khan.

“If the entire world thought elegantly in epigrams like Dorothy Parker or Oscar Wilde, Twitter would be a boon to civilization. Sadly, that is not the case, and the result is mostly inane and obvious commentary masking for discourse,” he wrote.

However, true to his love for international affairs, Toope conceded that Twitter has helped gather like-minded people during times of political turmoil, “as we saw throughout the Arab Spring,” he wrote.

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